TVD Vinyl Giveaway: Kiki Pau, Pines

The second release from Brooklyn’s newest and greatest label Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records is a beautiful sprawling modern masterpiece from Finnish psych band Kiki Pau. With four songs over 43 minutes, Pines is a departure from the type of music that Kiki Pau made on their first two albums.

Says Kiki Pau’s Henrik Domingo: “As for influences, lately its been about nuances and finding different ways of making sound, so we’ve listened to a lot of jazz, experimental, electronic, and ‘ethnic’ music etc. I’ve grown a bit tired of rock music and playing loud and so I feel have the other guys as well. We really tried to not to think of any references while making this record, so it was more like ‘hey this next part should sound like a thunderstorm in a desert and the next part a forest full of animals’, just childlike stuff.”

As president of Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records, when I first heard this music in the summer of 2012 via Kiki Pau’s Bandcamp page, I knew I would love to get it pressed to vinyl…the way something so beautiful and amazing should be heard. And now that it’s immortalized in wax, the world is being turned on to Kiki Pau’s Pines…

“…with woodwinds, hand drums, and guitar twang tracing links between pagan rituals under the midnight sun and Indian ashrams half a world away.”
—SPIN

“Pines is their third LP and the first to really make it’s way over to our shores – good thing too, ‘cuz we’re probably gonna be spinning this one a lot! This one is the total package too – beautiful cover art and groovy green vinyl, plus the LP was mixed by Dungen’s Gustav Ejstes so you KNOW it sounds great too. A real surprise and a definite contender for Top Ten lists here at the shop! RECOMMENDED!” – Permanent Records Chicago

“Pines is a feel good badass shamanistic pop prayer. It’s a gem in a sea of information and time. It pokes out through the corners of its foggy, smoky caverns and invites you in.”
—Sound Colour Vibration

“Kiki Pau, true to the album title, offer a soft, languorous psychedelia that’s full of pastoral nuance, some watery and folky prog touches in the broader swaths and a nimble pop sensibility that doesn’t get buried under sticky loam.”
—Sunrise Ocean Bender

“Their current sound is certainly something to smile about – a lush mix of neo sixties psych, krautrock, and jam rock.”
—The Reviler

“What if Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and Pink Floyd founder Syd Barret would both have withdrawn together into some cabin in Finland?”
—Totally Fuzzy

“Finnish group Kiki Pau was formed in 2007 but they might as well have been formed in 2013. Their 3rd LP Pines is reestablishing the band as psychedelic explorers after their initial incarnation was a somewhat by-the-numbers rock band and the good news is they’ve found just the right man to help channel these intergalactic aspirations.

Gustav Ejstes has been a master at re-creating the sound of 60’s experimentation and production techniques across 7 Dungen LPs and with his luscious mix on Pines, he’s helped make a truly remarkable record. Although the album contains just 4 songs, each one takes you on such a journey that it plays out like a mini-album in itself. “Astronauttija” launches like an early Floyd song with shiny guitars and catchy hooks before transitioning into an interstellar hoedown of sorts. Once that lets out, we’re treated to a fury of overdriven, phased-out psychedelic guitars and space rumbles that blows minds.

“Tomte Mars” almost feels like a prayer with its raga-like openings that soon becomes a swirling mass of guitars, harmonicas and spacey atmospherics. After the quarter-hour long beautiful and ever-searching dins of “Pines II Makumatka”, you’ll certainly feel scrambledhowever rejuvenated thanks to long strides of languid guitars, flutes, mouth-harps amidst hushed overtures. There’s so much wizardry and scruffy prismatic glory on Pines that you can simply just get lost in it and isn’t that what makes the best psychedelic music good? Indeed.”

The consensus as to whether Iceland is part of Scandinavia is a continual battle that I’m not going to wage here. That said, and assuming it’s included, I’d say Jonsî (front man for Sigur Ros) is probably my favorite “thing” to come out of this European region.

When my friend got back from living in Denmark she picked up all these tasty recipes from her host family my absolute favorite is Scandinavian meatballs. Oh how I miss my roommate’s cooking. He learned so many Scandinavian dishes I have come to love. I need to visit Denmark, Norway and Sweden.